Managers Have Brick Parachute

March 31, 1985|By New York Times News Service.

NEW YORK — The unemployment plight of middle managers remains a problem even though the recession has faded.

Whenever top executives such as Peter G. Peterson of Lehman Brothers must resign, headlines appear, but so-called golden parachute arrangements often help ousted leaders land gently: Peterson made the jump with millions.

By contrast, not much attention is paid when a corporation wipes out an entire department staff of middle managers. This has happened at several large insurance companies, banks, brokerage firms and other companies.

The move toward restricting the number of middle managers, defined as professionals or supervisors earning from $40,000 to $80,000 a year, began during the recession and continues today.

When middle managers are dismissed, they usually receive comparatively small consolation pay, perhaps a week`s salary for each year of employment at the company. As a result, group outplacement is a growing business.

Outplacement firms help dismissed employees find jobs by providing them with such things as a desk, a telephone, psychological testing, use of reference manuals and help with writing resumes. The employer doing the dismissing usually pays for the service.

Andrew Sherwood, senior partner of Goodrich & Sherwood Co., reports that group outplacements at his firm have risen 70 percent from the level of a year ago, and individual outplacements, 28 percent.

``It appears these days that top management considers middle managers the way the military in wartime considers enlisted personnel or the noncommissioned officer--expendable,`` Sherwood said.

At the same time, top management seems to have an almost paternal attitude toward blue-collar workers, he said. One reason may be that blue-collar workers tend to be unionized, making dismissal more difficult. Middle managers now display more mobility, a characteristic that has become respectable.

Gilbert E. Dwyer, president of Ward Howell International, a large management recruiting concern, said: ``There are more jobs listed per resume compared with five years ago. Companies now tend to show a positive attitude about job changes when offered a list of candidates for top or middle posts by a recruiting firm.``